A Colorado strip club has settled with authorities in a dispute over a 25-foot coronavirus social distancing rule between dancers and customers.
The Player’s Club in Adams County will install Plexiglas barriers around its stages and take other precautions after settling a lawsuit with state and local health officials.
The club filed a lawsuit earlier this month after it shut down to disinfect the building in the wake of three confirmed coronavirus cases among employees there.
Health officials allowed it to reopen as a restaurant — but only if it maintained the lengthier social distancing requirement between performers and patrons, according to the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the club argued the split both unfairly hurt its bottom line and cost dancers the chance to easily receive tips, “substantially impacting the ability if entertainers to be compensated for their art.”
The club’s lawyers said the 25-foot rule, which applies to performers in restaurant settings, was put in place because the act of singing “may spread COVID-19 at an increased rate due to respiratory particles exhaled by singers while performing.”
But pole dancers at the Player’s Club don’t sing — and the venue’s lawyers also argued that the business’ erotic entertainment competitors were not bound by similar 25-foot rules, so customers were going to them instead.
“Eroticism requires less distance than 25 feet to be effectively communicated to the patrons,” the lawsuit argued.
The parties came to terms last week, with the club dropping its lawsuit in exchange for being allowed to operate under the new rules, Denver-based BusinessDen reported.
Dancers will use a separate entrance and exit and have no physical or verbal interaction with patrons, according to a summary of the agreement.
Strippers will wear masks at all times within the club, and all employees will take temperature checks before and after their shifts. Patrons will undergo a temperature check before they can come inside.
The club will install Plexiglas barriers around all of its stages, which will reach from the ceiling to 2 inches above the stage floor, leaving room for tips.
Social distancing of 6 feet will be maintained by dancers and patrons.
And patrons will be required to wear masks except when they are eating for drinking.
